The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-05-28
EDITORIAL 8riets.
BY REV. I. M. ATWOOD, D. D.
Canton, N. Y.

A wELL-INFoRMED Washington corre-
spondent speaks with apparent authority
in assuring the nation that every line
which has ever appeared over the Presi-
ident's name has been his own" Much
speculation was INDUCED two years ago
by persons more curious than Discerning
as to the authorship of the Presidents
speeches and State papers. They always
have his personal stamp both in what
was strong and what was weak in them.
Mr.. Cleveland has improved in his style,
adding grace to strength, and his speech
es, messages and letters are now OF uni
form excellence. He is said slso by care
full observers of such matters, to have
mastered thoroughly the Boston art of
writing out speech before delivery, and
then uttering it with entire fidelity to
copy, at the same time that it is spoken,
with ease and extempore srdor.
The theological and homiletical men
tor OF the Sunday Herald remarks that
"the method which is to hold men to-day
| is not the old cut-and- dried method of
| ehO PoiPlp VI u SSuCldOAOh nSOs ASub u
generation ago is not so long away as you
appear to imagine, young man. The
great preachers of generation ago are
yet many OF them, in the pulpit, and the
air is still vibrating with the tones of
those who have passed on. How did
these men preach generation ago? Very
much as they, and the most powerful OF
their younger contemporaries, are preach
ing to-day. Preaching is not new art
as theology is not new science. The
idea that some smart scribbler is going to
patent brand-new method" of preach
ing that will "hold" the wonderful "men
of to-day" savors of prehistoric sim.
phcity.
The alumni-should we say venerable
of the Hartford Theological Seminary,
are compelled, ''for Christ's sake, to take
more pronounced stand against the
modern revival of a. cient rationalist;c
and semi. rationalistic theology. II. e., OF
the doctrine of possible second proba-
ton for heathens. We rejoice to behold
the venerable alumni of the Hartford
Seminary taking such a stand. 1t reveals
the true Rnimus of the religion where
with they are possessed. They appear to
be many times more anxious to convince
themselves that almost all the heather
will be lost than they are to have them
saved. Or, to draw it as mildly as possi-
sible the fact that some OF their brethren
see a possible chance for the salvation OF
pagans, by other than the regulation
mode, which reaches NOT offe-in- -ter--
thousand, fills their tender souls with
profound alarm. What is so inscrutable
as some mems piety?
-"Lounger," in the Critic, complains
on behalf of novelists that the public is
willing to wait till they are dead before
it pays its debt to them. So far as most
of the novelists of the present or past
generation are concerned, this is far from
justifiable complaint. No class of lit
erary workers has been so literally sup
ported by an appreciative public as the
novelists and story writer's; none are so
generously compensated still. Compare
the literary income of Howells, Steven
son, Roe, with that of Lowell, Stedman,
Matthew Arnold. Often the public is
more than generous to writers of fiction
It pays them large sums for cheap and
fragile sensations.
-RoOert Buchanan may be expressing
his honest mind, without affectation or
jaundice, in his "Look Round Litera-
ture,' II SO the Buchanan mind is Of
narrow range and faulty perception.
"Some day" says Mr.. Buchanan, at will
be among Tennyson's highest honors
that he was once named kindly and ap-
precistively by Whitman" Dickens,
Thackeray, George Eliot, Goethe, are only
a little remove from the crowd OF medioc-
rites, among whom Mr. Buchanan dis
Germs such popular favorites as Long
fellow, and such idols of fate as Lowell.
But Charles Reade was the one accom-
plished master of the great craft OF
storytelling"
What determines the Importance" of
any question? We constantly hear some
people lamenting that some other people
waste time and energy on unimportsnt
points. Greed questions, fellowship ques-
tions-speculations as to the essence of
matter or OF mind inquiries into the be-
ing of God, the nature of Christ, the
polity of the apostolic church, the truth
OF the doctrine of evolution, are all re-
garded by some good people as unprac-
teal if not trivial. Yet each of these is
an important question to many other
good people. Is there any test to deter
mine what subjects are important and
what not? Can we do better than to let
those who are interested in any question
discuss it, so long as they do so with in
telligence and courtesy?
One thing is apparent to outside OBJ
servers - that the Congregational body
cannot hold together in its present tenn
per. We do not know of any schism in
any church where the factions exhibit
such bitter and determined hostility.
| The split between the "Christian" and
the "ethica" Unitarians OF the Western
Conference is sufficiently decided; but
while the parties to it are earnest and
their positions irreconcilabIe, they have
not reached the point of imputiug bad
motives and duplicity to each other.
. / T,asr 4f,a5 s-s4